Apple's Enormous Year Finally Starts Today

Apple is typically a
tight-lipped company when it comes to future products. But, with
people getting antsy for the next big thing, its executives have
become uncharacteristically talkative about what it's
planning.

"Later this year, we've got the best product pipeline that I've
seen in my 25 years at Apple," Eddy
Cue, Apple's senior vice
president of internet software and service, said
last week at the Code Conference. "I believe the products
we've got coming are great."

In February CEO
Tim Cook said, "There will be new categories. We're not
ready to talk about it, but we're working on some really great
stuff."

Remember, Apple released the iPhone and the iPad in the
past 25 years that Cue is referring to. Whatever it has in
development is supposedly going to be better than those
products. So the pressure is now on for Apple to
deliver.

Apple kicks off its year of exciting new products on
Monday, June 2, in San Francisco at WWDC, its annual developer
conference. At 10 a.m. local time, it will have a keynote to
preview new software for the Mac and the iPhone. It's also going
to have some sort of new hardware, but don't expect anything like
the iWatch.

Here is what everyone is expecting:

Total redesign of the Mac's
software.Apple
completely changed the look of the iPhone last year, making it
more colorful and, for lack of a better term, flatter. Apple
will reportedly do the same with the Mac's software this
year.

iOS 8, the new
version of the operating system for iPhones and
iPads. This likely won't be a huge upgrade like
we saw with iOS 7 last year. Expect a few tweaks, bug fixes,
and helpful new features. Plus ...

A new fitness and health
application called Healthbook. This will be like Apple's Passbook
application that collects all of your tickets and passes. It
will collect fitness and health information from apps.

Improvements to Apple
Maps. We might finally get public transit directions
included with Apple's maps.

Some sort of smart home
integration.At
first, people were geeked up for this one, and thought Apple
had something special up its sleeve. Now it seems as if
it's
going to be a small deal.
Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm reports, "It is a much simpler program that will
basically certify a bunch of connected devices on the market or
set to be launched as products that are certified under
the Made for iPhone
label."

A new "hardware"
product.People
aren't expecting something big like an iWatch or an Apple TV.
So what can it be? We're guessing some sort of new Mac to show
off the new Mac OS,
but it won't be a new iMac.

Jimmy and
Dre. The Beats execs are expected to be on hand, and
they might even be on stage.

This will set up Apple for the rest of the year. In the coming
months Apple will likely launch a bigger-screen iPhone, new
iPads, and possibly the rumored iWatch. Mark this as the
beginning of the next big Apple era.